THE VICARAGE
The Reverend W.E.Woodward the Vicar from 1924 - 1939 was to secure the building of a permanent vicarage, prior to this previous Vicars had had to live wherever they could find a house. The years of Father Woodward's ministry were in fact years of building in Swanley. New houses sprang up in Swanley Lane, at Heathwood and beyond the station, and Swanley Junction, which up to this time had been a small village, began to acquire a new appearance. No account of these years would be complete without a mention of Mrs.Woodward. She indefatigable in her work for the Parish, and all who knew her learned to esteem and love her.

Father Woodward's last Sunday was the Dedication Festival 1939. A dark shadow of the years to come appears in the fact that Evensong had to be at 3.30 p.m. for the first time, owing to the 'black-out'. The next Vicar was Father Lucas. He was instituted and inducted as the fourth Vicar of St.Mary's on the following Wednesday the 4th October 1939 and remained here until Easter 1947. In spite of the difficulties of the war years, Father Lucas and his assistant Priests were able to proceed with the beautifying of the Church, the ordering of the ceremonial and the development of Parish work in many departments. St. Mary's was almost miraculously saved in the raids. Bombs fell all around, but the Church suffered no harm at all; it is amazing. The Parish was less fortunate, a number of houses were destroyed and nearly every house received some damage, but mercifully no lives were lost. Father Lucas resigned the living at Easter 1947 to become Vicar of St. Thomas's, Oxford, and was succeeded in the following June by the Reverend Charles Hunter Nixon who had previously been assistant Priest at St. Peter's, London Docks.

The Reverend Charles Hunter Nixon -1947 - 1964. Father Nixon continued to build on the previous incumbent's work in the Parish. He married a teacher from the White Oak Hospital and there was great rejoicing at their marriage. He continued the practice of pilgrimages to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham in Norfolk and on his retirement was to move to live there.

The Reverend Ernest Chown 1965 -1972. Father Chown was to succeed Father Nixon as the sixth Vicar of Swanley and in his incumbency was to see the development of the choir. He built up the boy's choir from St. Mary's School; each boy was given a voice test and those not suitable for the choir were passed on to Bill Marygold who trained them as servers so that no boys were rejected from the Church.

With the development of the new housing estates at Greenacres, Pinks Hill and St. George's Road and also Irving Way, there was an influx of young married couples and Father Chown had the vision to give these wives a roll to play and formed the Young Wives, later to become St. Mary's Guild. Father Chown also continued Father Nixon's connection with Walsingham and at this time was seen to encourage more children to go on pilgrimage. Miss Lynch, who was Matron of White Oak Hospital, was to give a piece of ground on which St. Andrew's Court now stands to the Church, and a Church hall was built. This land and the Church hall were subsequently sold and the proceeds from this provided sufficient capital to build the Narthex (the Church entrance hall) and the new Church hall.